Curtis Scott punching Dylan Walker splits rugby league public

STORM centre Curtis Scott has offered an apology for the punch that will leave Manly star Dylan Walker sidelined for six weeks.

AAPMay 20, 20182:46pm

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — MAY 19: Players wrestle during the round 11 NRL match between the Melbourne Storm and the Manly Sea Eagles at AAMI Park on May 19, 2018 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Robert Prezioso/Getty Images)Source:Getty Images

Intriguingly, the injury means Walker’s return match will likely come in the grudge match against the Storm in round 18 at Brookvale.

It comes as a massive blow to Manly, who had likely planned on shifting Walker back to the centres after the signing of Trent Hodkinson last week. Winger Jorge Taufua is due back from a shoulder injury against Canberra on Friday night.

Moses Suli was upgraded to an NRL contract to replace Walker in the centres a fortnight ago when he moved into the halves.

MADNESS, CRAP, DUMB, IRRESPONSIBLE

Melbourne NRL coach Craig Bellamy and stand-in skipper Billy Slater didn’t mince words as they described the Storm’s performance in their 24-4 loss to Manly.

The Storm failed to score a try, while the Sea Eagles scored four, and doubled Manly’s errors with 16 in the match AAMI Park.

They completed their sets at a season-low 61 per cent with Manly topping the 80 per cent mark.

They had centre Curtis Scott sent off for his part in a brawl, Josh Addo-Carr put in the sin-bin for a professional foul and Nelson Asofa-Solomona on report for a dangerous tackle.

“It was madness out there really but I can’t remember the last time we’ve played this poorly, especially in the second half,” Bellamy said.

“I thought we did a reasonable job in the first half but the second half was crap.

“I’m really, really disappointed.” With regular skipper Cameron Smith suspended for the match, Slater took the reins for the first time in his 15 years at the club but it is likely to be one will want to forget.

“It lacked a lot of things,” a shattered Slater said.

“There were some real dumb plays, some irresponsible plays — we just didn’t have any responsibility with the football.

“At times we were courageous defending on our tryline but as soon as we got the ball, we’d turn it back over.

“It’s hard to beat anyone when you do that.” Bellamy said it was up to the players to sort out their poor ball control if they were serious about mounting a proper title defence.

“They need to sort out how we’re going to fix it,” the coach said. “We’ve given them some ideas but they haven’t really bought into that so that will be our first job on Monday, to see the importance because it’s really hard to win games with that type of completion rate.”

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